"He won't have to answer questions about it for a couple days, so I'm sure that's nice for him," Crosby said.

He's correct, in the most literal sense possible. Fleury's 28 saves buy him a couple days. Pittsburgh's next game is on Saturday against the Buffalo Sabres. If Fleury plays poorly -- specifically, as poorly as he played last spring against the New York Islanders -- the questions will start again.

And really, the Fleury variable is as big as it gets in the NHL, at least in October. The Boston Bruins swept Pittsburgh, a perennial preseason favorite and regular-season force, in the Eastern Conference finals and sent them home early again, the fourth straight time since their 2009 Stanley Cup win. It wasn't Fleury's fault, because he rightfully was on the bench after allowing 14 goals on 102 shots over Games 2-4 of the first round.

The Boston sweep wasn't backup Tomas Vokoun's fault, either, but that's another point entirely. Less tangential is the fact that Vokoun's gone for now, rehabbing from a blood clot in Florida and sidelined until at least January. The question mark is bigger because there's no Plan B.

So, here we are again. The Penguins are a preseason favorite -- in Las Vegas, at least -- with a major asterisk that won't disappear until their starting goaltender either wins again, loses through no fault of his own, or leaves town. It might be the last season for an outcome other than Option C.

Fleury makes $5.75 million against the cap and has one year left on his deal. Next summer is the last time teams can use so-called compliance buyouts, and it's not difficult to see Pittsburgh pulling the trigger if things go sideways for a fifth straight season.

That's far enough in the future to ignore, though, and Pittsburgh has (at least) 81 games in the meantime.

"It was certainly a good start," coach Dan Bylsma said, going on to note that New Jersey started slowly with six shots in the first, ramped it up for a nine-shot second period and finished with a 12-shot third, with the Penguins opting to collapse on their goaltender and, maybe, back on their heels. That's when Fleury was at his best, including on a penalty shot by Adam Henrique and a behind-the-back save on Steve Bernier. On that one, he used his glove to the trap the puck against his numbers after it popped in the air.

"From watching the Pirates, I guess," Fleury said.

The baseball team lost on Thursday night. Pittsburgh's rationale for keeping Fleury -- whether it's via Bylsma or general manager Ray Shero -- paradoxically always comes back to wins. He's got 250 in the regular season right now, the ninth active goalie and 47th in history to hit that mark, along with that Cup. This is the obligatory Chris Osgood reference -- the former Red Wings goalie has 401 regular-season wins and two Cups of his own. Nobody should confuse him with an all-time great, or consider him even above-average for his era.

At this point, though, Pittsburgh would take it. Never mind that they're not puck-possession monsters like Osgood's teams; their talent dictates the perception that they should produce better playoff results than they actually do, and the last thing they need is a goalie who's not capable of at least managing risk. They need someone who can win, whatever that means, and at this point, only half of the Osgood model applies to Fleury.

"I believe Marc-Andre is a very good goalie. I think he's proven that time and time again. He's won a ton of hockey games, he's backstopped this team through wins the last six, seven seasons," Bylsma said. "He's had regular seasons of 41 wins and 39 wins, and (I) fully believe and expected him to do that for our team coming into this season."

Then he broke out the double negative: "I don't think that game was not expected from Marc-Andre Fleury."

If it happened in May, though? It wouldn't be -- to do Bylsma one better -- not not expected. That's what comes to mind watching Fleury, even now, and it's why he might only have a couple days of peace.